


A Gentlemen's Agreement

by Lucci_Norton



Category: Blur, Oasis (Band)
Genre: Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-28
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-04-01 16:50:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4027489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucci_Norton/pseuds/Lucci_Norton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Noel thinks these "close sources" are a little too close for comfort.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Gentlemen's Agreement

**Author's Note:**

> This story is based around real rumours and events but they may not have happened quite in the order in real life as they do in this fic (flashbacks aside).  
> 

“A gentlemen’s agreement”  
Noel almost snorted into his mug of tea as he threw the tabloid back onto the sofa with a bemused slap. This was why he never bought tabloids anymore. The stray edition of The Sun had been lying around on the settee like an uninvited guest. Noel suspected it was probably the housekeeper’s.  
He stared down at the battered newspaper and pressed on his eyelids with his fingertips. The article he’d read-despite his better judgement-had a headline which screamed “Don’t Look Back in Anger-Oasis to Headline Glastonbury 2016”. The article rambled on about how the Gallagher brothers had reached a “gentlemen’s agreement” to perform on stage together for the first time in six years in return for a large sum of money.  
Noel smiled to himself. It was amazing how many “close sources” Noel and Liam seemed to have gained since the start of their bitter estrangement in 2009. It seemed virtually anyone could be a close source nowadays. Anyone at all. Noel couldn’t help but suspect this current “source” was a little too close for comfort.

***

I see Noel Katie Hopkins Gallagher is talking out of his slack arse again go and polish your SAXAPHONE Ha ha LGx  
Liam smirked as he tapped the “tweet button on his iPhone. He watched the screen with growing satisfaction as the message appeared on his Twitter feed and his notifications instantly exploded.  
Despite them being estranged for almost six years, it didn’t stop Noel and Liam from aiming jibes at each other, be it via interviews, tabloid reports or the world of cyberspace. Liam liked Twitter. He rarely tweeted, only doing so when he felt there was something he really needed to get off his chest but despite this he had come close to a million followers. Liam often liked to amuse himself by tweeting cryptic messages and sending his fans into a frenzy. He also occasionally tweeted his support for his beloved team, Manchester City. But Liam’s favourite thing about Twitter was that he was still able to breathe down Noel’s neck after all these years. Every time Noel said something that Liam thought even vaguely unnecessary, he made it known on his Twitter account. Which is exactly what he had just done.  
"There was a rumour last week that we've had a gentleman's agreement to reform the band,” Noel had said in an interview the day before, “but that rumour’s come from his people. It's a 'source close to him,' and I'll tell you how close it is: she probably wakes up with him every morning.”  
400\. 500. 600. Liam watched his notifications swell. Noel might have been gaining publicity making music with his High Flying Smurfs but Liam was still proving he was just as relevant as his brother when it came to making headlines. Noel was a proper Mancunian and a great songwriter but he was never a real rock star. He might have been crude and free with his words but he was too prim and proper when it came to publicity and live performances. Liam thought Noel looked like a member of Westlife on stage dressed in double denim and standing rigidly at the microphone, clutching his guitar as though it were a large ornament. He could never quite own the same swag, vulgarity or showmanship that was so associated with Liam.  
Liam knew how to play the game. He knew the best way for people to notice him was to grab their attention first. Back in the glory days of Oasis, there didn’t need to be any publicists when Liam was around getting arrested and flipping the bird at photographers. Beady Eye may have called it a day but Liam wasn’t planning on retiring just yet. Liam had all the right ingredients for an Oasis reunion apart from Noel, the chief songwriter. Noel was a pain in the arse and a spoilsport. When asked if he would consider reforming the band in 2011, what was Noel’s response? “Not even if all the starving children in the world depended on it.”  
Liam had an outlandish idea in his mind. He had no idea how it would work yet. But it would definitely grab the attention of Oasis fans. And Britpop fans. And the world. He was going to try and steal a songwriter. And potentially Noel’s new best friend.

***

Noel had received a text. When he saw who it was from, he raised his eyebrows in disbelief. It was very rarely he got texts from Liam anymore. It was rare for anyone to get a text from Liam, he usually only used his phone for Twitter. Not for calling or texting anyone.  
Suspecting it would be a colourful insult following the publicised comments he’d made about Liam’s girlfriend, Noel opened the message. He had to read it three times before it dawned on him what it actually meant;  
There’s a lot of starving children in the world.  
Noel didn’t understand why Liam couldn’t just move on from Oasis. Noel had his own career now, which was flourishing. Liam was currently unemployed and spending his time showing up in Comic Relief sketches or holidaying with his girlfriend. Noel rolled his eyes and deleted the message before scrolling down through the rest of his inbox. He noticed that he’d overlooked a text from Damon which he had received a few days before. He opened the message and smiled to himself as he read it;  
Two auditions for Wonder.land today, both Oasis songs. Will email you soon.

***

(The BRIT Awards 1996)  
“And the award of Best British Group goes to…”  
A smattering of chanting and shouting erupted from several places in the crowd.  
“…Oasis!”  
The place exploded with loud, heavy cheers and applause as Noel and Liam made their way to the stage.  
“I’d like to thank all the people…”, said Liam after they had accepted their award. Noel and Liam briefly made eye contact and grinned. They put their arms round each other as they began to sing the lyrics of Blur’s hit song Parklife to mixed responses of both laughter and boos from the crowd.  
“All the people, so many people and they all walk hand in hand, hand in hand through their…”  
“Marmite”, barked Noel.  
“…SHITELIFE”, drawled Liam much louder, provoking a chorus of boos from the Blur fans among the crowd.  
The night of the BRIT Awards in 1996 was the moment the media interest in the infamous “Blur vs. Oasis” feud really took off.

***

Favourite song from the new Blur album?  
This was one of the questions put to Noel on the Reddit Q&A online which took place in early 2015. This was several weeks after Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Dave Rowntree and Alex James had all piled together on a sofa with their producer Stephen Street across from an excited Zane Lowe in front of a sea of journalists. This had all taken place in a restaurant in Chinatown and the interview was beamed to websites around the world.  
“So you are here for a reason”, Lowe had pressed when a suspiciously coy Damon had finished giggling silently to Graham and nudging him on the sofa.  
“Uh, yeah…we’ve made a new record”, said Damon almost casually and was instantly met with a rupture of applause from the group of journalists below.  
Noel smiled to himself as he began typing his response into the Reddit discussion. He hadn’t listened to the entirety of Blur’s eighth offering The Magic Whip just yet but he had heard some great tracks so far. He reckoned Lonesome Street had to be one of his most favourite Blur songs in ages along with Ong Ong. He wrote his thoughts on the two tracks and pressed send.  
“Funny how much things can change”, Noel mused as he observed the activity online. If anyone had asked him about Blur 20 years ago they would probably be either shoved or spat at and maybe given a torrent of foul-mouthed abuse on top of that. Stranger still, if anyone had asked Damon Albarn five years ago if a new Blur record would ever happen, with or without the then estranged guitarist Graham Coxon-which several optimistic journalists did-Damon would have told them that he believed Blur was over. Even the future of his virtual other band Gorillaz seemed to hang by a thread after his fallout with friend and Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett. Now a fifth Gorillaz album was on the cards for 2016 and the excitement was already brewing.  
Noel sat back in his chair as he watched what was happening on Reddit and let his mind wander back to 2011 when he performed with Damon for the first time at the Teenage Cancer Trust. If Noel had never approached Damon in that bar the year before, the feud between them would probably still be going strong today. Certainly no one would be asking him for his thoughts on any Blur album. He cast his mind back to 1996 when he infamously said he hoped Damon would “catch AIDs and die”. It was one of the things Noel and Damon had discussed light-heartedly when they reunited at the bar.  
“I like that about him though”, Damon insisted when challenged on how he felt towards Noel’s past comments by a journalist, “He’s not afraid to say what he thinks. He’s someone I can have a laugh with.”  
Who knew Damon would have such a good sense of humour?

***

“Twat.”  
Liam thought Damon looked a right pillock wriggling around in front of the journos and smirking across at Graham while Alex James in particular looked so bored he could almost have passed for a corpse sitting upright. There was an underlying smugness about Damon that Liam couldn’t stand; the way he acted coy one moment and then verbally attacked someone the next. Liam like many others, had watched Blur’s live press conference with Zane Lowe in which they announced their first new album in almost 13 years.  
“Playing up to the cameras as usual”, Liam observed as Damon whispered something in Graham’s ear for the third time since the interview started. It was almost as bad as his pathetic showmance with Noel.

***

Liam Gallagher Recording Solo Album  
Noel picked up The Sun from the coffee table and leafed through it. It had been almost a fortnight since the last tabloid had been found in his house which outrageously claimed Noel and Liam had reached a “gentlemen’s agreement”. “That housekeeper really ought to tidy her shit up a bit”, Noel thought absent-mindedly. He flicked to page six. “What are the odds it’ll be from another close source?” Noel scanned the article. The very first sentence confirmed his suspicions; “A close source revealed to The Sun…” Noel closed the newspaper, folded it in half and tossed it to the other end of the sofa.  
“If Our Kid wants to sing good music”, Noel thought, “He ought to come to me for a few tunes. I’d do that for him. Lord knows he can’t write a proper melody to save his life. Won’t happen though. Kid’s too proud.”  
He lit up a cigarette. “Another close source…his bird’s being kept busy…”

***

Liam took to Twitter the moment he’d finished listening to The Magic Whip. “Lonesome St. by Blur, song of the year”, he tweeted to another flurry of notifications. He grinned to himself. He knew how to play the game.

***

Oasis to Reform without Noel Gallagher  
“For God’s sake”, Noel muttered. “It’s a Beady Eye reunion. Just call it that.”  
Noel had seen many different versions of Oasis reunion stories but this one by far had to be the most ridiculous.  
“It’s not fucking Oasis”, thought Noel, “My name has been on all of Oasis’s records. Beady Eye can’t just come along and call themselves Oasis. I’m not having my name associated with Liam’s when he tarnishes the band. How can they call themselves fucking Oasis when they’ve got no fucking songwriter? Unbelievable!”

***

“Damon. A call for you.”  
“Who is it”, Damon enquired to his PA. All calls from an unknown number were taken by his PA before they went to him. It was only occasionally now that this happened so Damon suspected it might actually be something important.  
“This is a bit weird”, said Damon’s PA. “But it’s from a Mr. Liam Gallagher. He wants to have a word with you about the Oasis reunion. He says he’s thinking about slightly altering the line-up.”


End file.
